The oldest documented Glühwein tankard is attributed to Count John IV of Katzenelnbogen, a German nobleman who was the first grower of Riesling grapes.

Along with Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc was one of the first fine wines to be bottled with a screwcap in commercial quantities, especially by New Zealand producers.

As of 2004, Riesling was estimated to be the world's 20th most grown variety at ( with an increasing trend ), but in terms of importance for quality wines, it is usually included in the " top three " white wine varieties together with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

In 2006, Riesling was the most grown variety in Germany with 20. 8 % and, and in the French region of Alsace with 21. 9 % and.

The modern spelling Riesling was first documented in 1552 when it was mentioned in Hieronymus Bock's Latin herbal.

However, in 1477, Riesling was documented in Alsace under the spelling Rissling.

Earlier, Riesling was sometimes claimed to have originated from wild vines of the Rhine region, without much support to back up that claim.

More recently, DNA fingerprinting by Ferdinand Regner indicated that one parent of Riesling is Gouais Blanc, known to the Germans as Weißer Heunisch, a variety that, while rare today, was widely grown by the French and German peasantry of the Middle Ages.

It is presumed that the Riesling was born somewhere in the valley of the Rhine, since both Heunisch and Traminer have a long documented history in Germany, but with parents from either side of the Adriatic the cross could have happened anywhere on the way.

The beneficial use of " noble rot " in Riesling grapes was discovered in the late 18th century at Schloss Johannisberg.

Permission from the Abbey of Fulda ( which owned the vineyard ) to start picking Riesling grapes arrived too late and the grapes had begun to rot ; yet it turned out that the wine made from them was still of excellent quality.

Riesling is on record as being planted in the Alsace region by 1477 when its quality was praised by the Duke of Lorraine.

Riesling was first planted in New Zealand in the 1970s and has flourished in the relatively cool climate of the Marlborough area and for late harvests in the Nelson region.

New York, particularly in the Finger Lakes region, was one of the earliest U. S. producers of Riesling.

It is interesting that the founder of St. Urbanshoff in the Mosel, Herman Weiss, was an early pioneer in Niagara's modern viticulture, selling his strain of Mosel clone Riesling to many producers in west Niagara ( these vines are well over 20 years old now ).

In the history of wine, Katzenelnbogen is famous for the first documentation of Riesling grapes in the world: this was in 1435, when the storage inventory of Count John IV of Katzenelnbogen, a member of the Holy Roman high nobility, lists the purchase of vines of " Rieslingen ".

In the 18th century, the Prince-elector of Trier, Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony, mandated that over a seven-year period every vine in the Mosel area was to Riesling only.

Whereas today Australia's major white varieties are Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc, early in the country's viticultural development it was Sémillon, then mislabeled as Riesling.

Sémillon is widely grown in Australia, particularly in the Hunter Valley north of Sydney, where for a long time it was known as " Hunter River Riesling ".

This technique was developed in Germany and is used with German-style wines such as semi-sweet Riesling or Müller – Thurgau.

When Dr. Müller created the grape in the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute in the late 19th century, his intention was to combine the intensity and complexity of the Riesling grape with the ability to ripen earlier in the season that the Silvaner grape possesses.

The turning point in Müller-Thurgau's growth however was the winter of 1979, when on 1 January there was a sharp fall in temperatures, to 20 ° F (− 7 ° C ) in many areas, which devastated most of the new varieties, but did not affect the varieties such as Riesling which have much more hardy stems, after hundreds of years of selection.

In the countries where it is cultivated, Riesling is most commonly grown in colder regions and locations.

The most expensive wines made from Riesling are late harvest dessert wines, produced by letting the grapes hang on the vines well past normal picking time.

Unlike Chardonnay, most Riesling do not undergo malolactic fermentation.

The most notable is the Müller-Thurgau developed in the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute in 1882, which is a cross of Riesling and Madeleine Royale ( although long believed to be Riesling x Silvaner ).

Typical grapes used for ice wine production are Riesling, considered to be the most noble variety by German winemakers ; Vidal, highly popular in Ontario, Canada ; and, interestingly, the red grape Cabernet Franc.

The slate-based soil here is said to have one of the most recognizable terroir with the wines, especially Riesling, displaying slatey mineral notes.

The Riesling grape, grown on 59. 7 % of the region's cultivated vineyard surface in 2008, is widely considered the most prestigious and highest quality wine grape of the Mosel but it can not be planted on every vineyard site due to difficulties the grape has in ripening in particularly cool climates.

A positive characteristic of the Riesling grape is that despite less than perfect ripeness it can still create a wine of finesse and elegance that would escape most other grape varieties.

Riesling X Sylvaner is a common white wine produced in German-speaking parts of the country, while Chasselas is the most common white wine in the French-speaking parts of the country.

Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of German wines is the high level of acidity in them, caused both by the lesser ripeness in a northerly climate and by the selection of grapes such as Riesling which retain acidity even at high ripeness levels.

The wines may be either sweet or dry ( trocken ); it is a level of ripeness that particularly suits rich dry wines from Riesling, Weißer Burgunder and Grauer Burgunder grapes for example, as at Auslese levels the alcohol levels may become very high in a dry wine leaving the wine unbalanced, making wines with at least some residual sweetness preferable to most palates.

While there has been some progress with red wines from the Bordeaux varieties and Pinot Noir, Canada's most successful wines are ice wines made from grapes such as Riesling, Vidal, and even Cabernet Franc.

The most important white variety is Riesling, with the Clare Valley regarded as its Australian home.

Gewurztraminer is the most common variety used for vendange tardive wines, as it readily achieves high sugar levels ; these are harder to attain with Riesling and Pinot Gris, but with greater acidity to balance the sweetness, such wines can be very long-lived.

Walhaz ), and most of the synonyms in Central Europe are variations on ' Italian Riesling '.

In 1838 William Macarthur planted Riesling vines near Penrith in New South Wales.

In California, Riesling lags far behind Chardonnay in popularity and is not as commonly planted.

In 2006, the Rheingau winery Fritz Allendorf planted what has been claimed to be the first commercial amounts of Red Riesling.

In 1435 when Count John VI of Katzenelnbogen planted Riesling in the nearby Rüsselsheim the first time he owned vineyards in Winningen like the Destil, in Burgen and Kochem one half of the city and many vineyards more along the Mosel.

Many areas that were not ideal for Riesling were soon planted by the easier to grow Müller-Thurgau and other Riesling crossings.

In place of Riesling, the easier cultivated Müller-Thurgau grape ( 14. 7 %) and other Riesling crossings like Kerner ( 4. 6 %) were planted in large quantities on the sites that were not suitable for Riesling, and which in many cases had been previously used for other agricultural purposes.

These vineyards are planted with Riesling grapes, with some Spätburgunder ( Pinot Noir ), and produce some of the finest wines in Germany.

In the decades since then, the winemakers have begun to grow a wider variety of vines, and Müller-Thurgau is now less widely planted in Germany than Riesling, although still significant in that country and world-wide.

" Gray Riesling " was once widely planted in California, but the land for winemaking declined sharply in the 1980s, now while some Trousseau Gris can be found in old field-blended Zinfandel vineyards, the only standing block is ten acers of the Fanucchi Wood Road Vineyard in the Russian River Valley.